Adaptive Complex Data-Intensive Web Systems via Object-oriented
Paradigms: A Real-life Case Study
Alfredo Cuzzocrea
1,2 a,*
and Edoardo Fadda
3,4 b
1
iDEA Lab, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy
2
LORIA, Nancy, France
3
DAUIN Department, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy
4
ISIRES, Torino, Italy
Keywords: Adaptive Complex Data-Intensive Web Systems, Object-oriented Adaptive Complex Data-Intensive Web
Systems, Real-life Case Studies.
Abstract: This paper focuses the attention on the emerging class of Adaptive Complex Data-Intensive Web Systems
(ACDIWS), which start from classical Adaptive Web Systems (AWS) and add innovative characteristics of
complex application scenarios and big Web data. One among the state-of-the-art results is represented by the
OO-XAHM framework, which makes use of an object-oriented approach for achieving the adaptation effect
over complex data-intensive Web systems. Along this fortunate line of research, this paper contributes to the
research context with a real-life case study that shows the potentialities of OO-XAHM on the Web portal of
the well-known Italian archaeological site Pompeii.
1 INTRODUCTION
In the era of Internet, attention of the last decades was
on personalized services and it is going to be again
the same for the future decades. Users access services
based on their “attention” and Web sites provide
services accordingly. Platforms such as social
networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), online
video-sharing platforms (Youtube, Netflix, etc.)
online shopping (Amazon, Ebay, etc.) and many
others, aim at keeping the user as much time as
possible on their Web sites. In such a way, they are
able to collect more data and to present to more
personalized contents. In orde to have user willing to
spent time on a Web site, the content must be
appreciated by the user.
In order to achieve such a goal two enabling
technologies are needed: Data Mining Techniques
(e.g., (Olson & Delen, 2008)) and Adaptive Web
Systems (e.g., (Brusilovsky et al., 1998; Brusilovsky
& Maybury, 2002)). The former techniques are
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7104-6415
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5599-6349
*This research has been made in the context of the
Excellence Chair in Computer Engineering – Big Data
Management and Analytics at LORIA, Nancy, France”
important due to the need to exctract useful
information from the huge amount of data collected.
Despite this, it is common knowledge that, nowadays,
while Data Mining, also combined with emerging Big
Data Technologies (e.g., (Furht & Villanustre, 2016;
Akash et al., 2017; Cuzzocrea et al., 2015, Cuzzocrea
et al., 2014)), has provided the instrument for
implementing in practice a vast range of data analysis
tools, designing intelligent techniques for Web
personalization (e.g., (Brusilovsky, 2003)) is still a
real, effective research challenge (e.g., (Hariyanto &
Köhler, 2020; Elmabaredy et al., 2020). Its need has
further grown in these last years, thus attracting a
plethora of academic and industrial researchers
ranging from the Artificial Intelligence research field
to the Machine Learning and Database Systems ones.
Indeed, adaptive web systems are important
because users are more and more heterogeneous due
to different interests and goals, world-wide
deployment of information and services. Thus,
adapting the Web site content to the user preferences
Cuzzocrea, A. and Fadda, E.
Adaptive Complex Data-Intensive Web Systems via Object-oriented Paradigms: A Real-life Case Study.
DOI: 10.5220/0010481705650572
In Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2021) - Volume 2, pages 565-572
ISBN: 978-989-758-509-8
Copyright
c
2021 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
565
is of paramount importance. Moreover, adaptive
systems enable artificial intelligent algorithms to
interact directly with the user (e.g., (Cerone et al.,
2017)). The application fields where content
personalization achieved has proven to be effective
are on-line advertising, direct Web-marketing,
electronic commerce, on-line learning and teaching, etc.
Recently, this paradigm has now been of great
interest thanks to the integration of Web
personalization and big data. The literature now
exposes several contributions on this topics (e.g.,
(Elmabaredy et al., 2020)). As the reader can notice,
the branch of the literature dealing with this topic has
presented several contributios in the recent years, and
the centrality of the topic is re-gaing importance. To
be convinced of this claim, it is sufficient to think of
modern Web-based applications like e-government,
e-procurement, and e-democracy, which promise to
definitively realize the so-called Information Society
that represents one of the most attractive and exciting
challenges for the next years. Morevover, consider a
today case. Due to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic,
several high school students cannot attend the physical
lectures, thus creating huge lack in their knowledge.
In this context, having the possibility of learning
thorught a Web platform whose contents adapt to the
student in order to keep his/her as interested as
possible is an application of central importance.
This paper focuses the attention on the emerging
class of Adaptive Complex Data-Intensive Web
Systems (ACDIWS), which start from classical
Adaptive Web Systems (AWS) and adds innovative
characteristics of complex application scenarios and
big Web data (e.g., (Efthymiou et al., 2020)). One
among the state-of-the-art results is represented by
the OO-XAHM framework (Cannataro & Cuzzocrea,
2003), which makes use of an object-oriented
approach for achieving the adaptation effect over
complex data-intensive Web systems. Along this
fortunate line of research, this paper contributes to the
research context with a real-life case study that shows
the potentialities of OO-XAHM on the Web portal of
the well-known Italian archaeological site Pompeii.
We recall the reader that Pompeii was an ancient
city located in the modern city of Pompeii near
Naples, Italy. It was buried under 4 to 6 meters of
volcanic ash and pumice during the eruption of
Mount Vesuvius in 79 aC. Largely preserved under
the ash, the excavated city offered a unique snapshot
of Roman life, frozen at the moment it was buried,
and an extraordinarily detailed insight into the
everyday life of its inhabitants. Due to its unique
characteristics, it is one of the most important Roman
archaeological sites.
From the theoretical point of view, according to
OO-XAHM, an AWS is composed by the following
sets:
Set of profiles
𝐴 that collects all the
various user profiles:
Set of web pages Σ𝐴 that contains all the
Web pages of the target Web site;
Set of information fragments Δ𝐴that
contains all the resources such as videos,
images, etc. that are used in the target Web
site;
Set of concepts Φ𝐴 that contains the
abstract set of concepts considered in the
target Web site.
In order to link the elements of the set for creating
the web pages, two functions are defined. First one is
the following:
𝛿
𝐴
𝐴
→Δ
𝐴
(1
)
that connects the page to the information fragments.
Second one is the following:
𝑘
𝐴
:Σ
𝐴
→Φ
𝐴
(2
)
that connects the pages to the concepts. Thus, by
properly updating these two functions, it is possible
to dynamically change the content of the target Web
site to meet the user preferences. Several AWS
frameworks using this theoretical framework have
been introduced in the literature. As mentioned, OO-
XAHM, is among the state-of-the-art ones. Despite
the large amount of pubblications describing the
approaches and their property, there no paper related
to applications of the framework to real case studies.
This justifies the present paper, where we present an
application of the OO-XAHM framework to the
Pompeii Web portal (Pompeii Sites, 2020). In fact, it
should be note that, every day, a huge amount of
people visits the city of Pompeii. Each one of them
has different knowledge, goals and interests. The
Pompeii Web portal offers a huge amounts of
information, and therefore the OO-XAHM
framework is particularly suitable for the needs of
gain effective and efficient Web content
personalization.
2 RELATED WORK
As mentioned in Section 1, recently there has been a
new interest in the context of adaptive web systems,
combined with emerging contexts like big data. Here,
we review some relevant approaches.
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Figure 1: UML Class Diagram for the Pompeii Web Portal.
(Hariyanto & Köhler, 2020) proposes a Web-
based adaptive e-learning application for
engineering students, and its experimental
evaluation. The primary purpose of this study is to
evaluate the Web-based adaptive e-learning
application based on the expert-based assessment.
There are two aspects of assessment considered in
this study, the first one evaluates the e-learning
system in terms of the learning content and its
structure, and the second one focuses on the media
aspect. The process of evaluation is conducted by
developing the instruments of evaluation by taking
into account related literature. Then, the content
validity of the instruments is checked by scientific
experts. After that, the assessment is conducted by
two groups of experts in a paper-and-pencil format by
marking one out of four points Likert scale. The result
shows that the adaptive e-learning application is
categorized acceptable to use in the learning process.
(de Vasconcelos et al., 2020) instead focuses on a
methodology for supporting the construction of
adaptive Web applications, called Real-time Usage
Mining (RUM). RUM exploits the rich information
provided by client logs to support the construction of
adaptive Web applications. The main goal of RUM is
to provide useful information about the behaviour of
users that are currently browsing a Web application.
By consuming this information, the application is
able to adapt its user interface in real-time to enhance
the user experience. RUM provides two types of
services as follows: (i) support for the detection of
struggling users; and (ii) user profiling based on the
detection of behaviour patterns.
Finally, (Elmabaredy et al., 2020) presents a study
devoted to assess Web-based adaptive presentation
techniques for enhancing learning outcomes in higher
education. The purpose of this study is to develop and
compare two different techniques of adaptive
presentation techniques (adaptive multimedia/
frames). Moreover, this study aimed at investigating
the effect of both treatments on improving learning
outcomes. The participants are two experimental
groups. One was taught content through the
multimedia-based technique. The other one was
taught content through the frame-based technique.
The results show that the adaptive presentation
techniques have an effect on enhancing students’
learning outcomes. Also, the comparison of the
techniques shows a significant difference between the
mean scores of the two groups in favour of the first
one. The study concludes that the adaptive
multimedia-based technique shows higher impact
relatively than the frame-based technique.
3 OO-XAHM CASE STUDY: THE
POMPEII WEB PORTAL
This Section presents the case study that implement
the proposed technique. The software application
considered is the Pompeii Web portal. The UML
Adaptive Complex Data-Intensive Web Systems via Object-oriented Paradigms: A Real-life Case Study
567
diagram of the underline database is depicted in
Figure 1.
As the reader can notice, the most important table
contains the information of the element Sites (i.e.,
table Site). It contains the name, a picture of the site
and the availability. In fact, it is possible that some
sites are closed due to restoration activities. Each
element Site is linked to one or more address (several
houses have more than one entrance). Element Path
are characterized by a list of Sites, the Length in meter
and the Boolean Handicap that is true if there are the
structure that enable the path to be visited by using a
wheelchair. Furthermore, each site is linked to the
review that the visitors can write. Element Sites can
be on four different types: Wall, Temple, Necropolis
and Gate.
Each one of these tables add important details to
the corresponding site and are linked to the element
Object that can be found in element Site: they are
Painting, Mosaic and Relic. A screen shot of the main
tables are presented in Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4,
and Figure 5.
Figure 2: Table Wall.
Figure 3: Table Gate.
In our case study, we focus on three profiles
tourist, researcher and historian. Thus, the set of
profiles
𝐴 is the following:
𝐴
𝑡𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡,𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑟,ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛
(3
)
Each profile 𝑝∈
𝐴 is associated to a final
pages in the set Σ𝐴, defined as follows:
Σ
𝐴
𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑠. ℎ𝑡𝑚𝑙,𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠.ℎ𝑡𝑚𝑙,
𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒.ℎ𝑡𝑚𝑙
(4
)
Figure 4: Table Necropolis.
Figure 5: Table Temple.
In particular, the profile tourist is associated with
the page temples.html, the profile researcher is
associated with the page necropolis.html and
the profile historian is associated with the page
gate.html. The set of information fragments is the
following:
Δ𝐴

𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝐼𝑠𝑖𝑠.𝑗𝑝𝑔, 𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑦𝑉𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑠.𝑗𝑝𝑔,
𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑢𝑚𝐺𝑎𝑡𝑒. 𝑗𝑝𝑔,
𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑉𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑣𝑖𝑜𝐺𝑎𝑡𝑒.𝑗𝑝𝑔,
𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑁𝑜𝑐𝑒𝑟𝑎𝐺𝑎𝑡𝑒.𝑗𝑝𝑔,
(5
)
Finally, the set of concepts is the following:
Φ
𝐴
𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛,𝑎𝑟𝑡,𝑤𝑎𝑟
(6
)
The function 𝛿𝐴 is defined as follows:
𝛿
𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠.ℎ𝑡𝑚𝑙
𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠.
𝑗
𝑝𝑔
𝛿
𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑠.ℎ𝑡𝑚𝑙
𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑠.
𝑗
𝑝𝑔
𝛿
𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠.ℎ𝑡𝑚𝑙
𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠.
𝑗
𝑝𝑔
(7
)
and the function 𝑘𝐴 is defined as follows:
𝑘
𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠.𝑡𝑚𝑙
𝑛𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠
𝑘𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑠.ℎ𝑡𝑚𝑙𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑘
𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠.ℎ𝑡𝑚𝑙
ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛
(8
)
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Figure 6: Main Path Proposed for the Profile tourist.
Figure 7: Information Fragments Proposed for the Profile tourist.
The path proposed for the profile tourist covers
the most important temples. In particular, the temples
that can be visited are the one Isis, the one of Venus,
the one of Athena, the one of Hercules and some
small temples inside the major house of the city. We
show in Figure 6 and Figure 7 an example of tour for
the profile tourist plus the related information
fragments. The tour considers the three most
important temples (i.e., Isis, Venus, Athena and
Hercules), their visit presenting a complete
description of the art and the religion in the Pompeii
world. In the path, other temples are not presented
because of the time constraints for the visit. By
clicking on the red square marker, the user have
access to a page describing the site. In Figure 7, we
show, in particular, the page of the description of the
temple of Isis.
The path proposed for the profile researcher,
shown in Figure 8, passes near the main necropolis of
the city, i.e. the necropolis of the Herculaneum gate,
the one of the Nocera gate and the one of the Vesuvio
gate.
Adaptive Complex Data-Intensive Web Systems via Object-oriented Paradigms: A Real-life Case Study
569
Figure 8: Main Path Proposed for the Profile researcher.
Figure 9: Information Fragments Proposed for the Profile researcher.
Despite the fact that other necropolises exist, the
application does not suggest them because they are
less important and belong to period before the Roman
empire, thus they are not important for the profile
considered. As in the other pages, by clicking on the
red pins on the map, the page shown in Figure 9
appears. It shows the main information of the three
necropolises proposed in the path. The page does not
contain graphical information fragments because the
sites have a huge geographic extension, thus a single
information fragment is not enough to present the
sites.
Finally, for the profile historian, the path
proposed by the application is shown in Figure 10,
while the Figure 11 shows the associate information
fragments. The path passes near the three of the four
most important gates of the city, i.e. the Herculaneum
gate, the Marina gate and the Nocera gate. The user
considered for this profile needs to travel by
wheelchair, thus, the path presented in Figure 11 can
be travel in that way. This is the main reason of the
path passing outside the city. In fact, the old roman
streets have small sidewalk often rugged, thus travel
by wheelchair becomes very difficult. Furthermore,
in the street, there are often rocks bulging that were
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Figure 10: Main Path Proposed for the Profile historian.
Figure 11: Information Fragments Proposed for the Profile historian.
for the pedestrian crossing of the street. These
increase the difficulty to move inside the city by
wheelchair. The management of the historical site of
Pompeii is looking for a solution. In fact, in several
part of the city, they added boardwalk; nevertheless,
the work is not completed for the trips outside the
most important house of the city. Due to the
aforementioned problem, the fourth gate (the Vesuvio
gate) is not in the considered in the path since it is not
reachable by wheelchair. As in the previous pages, by
clicking on the pins some details of the gates are
shown in another page (see Figure 11). The page of
details shows also images of the three gates; this is
because just one information fragment well
represents what the user is going to see.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Within the complex context of AWS, this paper has
complemented the main research contributions
carried out by the state-of-the-art OO-XAHM
proposal (Cannataro & Cuzzocrea, 2003). We
presented a complete case study following the
attention on the Web portal of the well-known Italian
Adaptive Complex Data-Intensive Web Systems via Object-oriented Paradigms: A Real-life Case Study
571
archaeological site Pompeii. Our study has clearly
demonstrated how OO-XAHM is capable of adapting
the Web content to three different profiles, namely:
tourist, researcher and historian. We firmly believe
that adaptation paradigms will become more and
more important in the emerging context of big Web
data. This paper could thus represent an important
milestone to this end. In future work, we plan to
consider other innovative aspects of adaptive
paradigms (e.g., (Kim, 2021; Bhattacharjee & Mitra,
2021; Mohammad et al., 2021)) and big data research
(e.g., (Fisichella et al., 2011; Bellatreche et al., 2010;
Braun et al., 2017; Cuzzocrea et al., 2012)).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research has been partially supported by the
French PIA project “Lorraine Université
d’Excellence”, reference ANR-15-IDEX-04-LUE.
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